


Too Much Of A Good Thing

by Ononymous



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23857996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ononymous/pseuds/Ononymous
Summary: Some unorthodox situations require precision. And when you only have once chance, that precision isn't guaranteed. But it's not all or nothing. We can work with this. Just as long as he can work with it too
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Too Much Of A Good Thing

The car looked perfectly normal as it turned the corner, save for two novelty horns that looked attached to its roof. That the horns were not attached to the car at all, but instead its driver, and merely stuck through the sun roof, wasn't apparent. Or indeed all that unusual these days, especially at the school it chose to pull up in front of.

"Here we are, children," said Asgore, looking back as much as the incompatible ergonomic choices of the car's design permitted him. "Now, you have everything?"

"Yeah, Dad," said Frisk. Asriel was too busy with his head in his own bag to answer.

"Finished homework?"

"Uh-huh."

"Phones?"

"Right here," answered his son.

"Those sandwiches I bought you?"

"Not for long, hee hee!"

Asgore frowned slightly. "Save them for lunch, Asriel. Oh, and you are fully charged, correct?"

"Huh? Uh, sure Dad." He quickly jerked his wrist up to show the bulky watch he wore there, then quickly continued. "Same as every day. Hey, are we still good for tomorrow?"

"As of this moment, yes," said Asgore, "as long as you don't do anything to change that."

"You bet! C'mon, Frisk, let's find MK."

"Alrighty. Have a good day, you two!"

"Thanks Dad," said Frisk, "good luck with Temmie."

Asgore's horn tapped the edge of the sunroof as he shook his head. "It's even hard to know which one started it, Frisk. Well except Bob, but still. Stay safe."

Soon the human and monster were watching the car glide away, before turning around and walking up the path to the school's main entrance.

"You think he's on the playground?"

Frisk shrugged. "Depends on whether he finished his homework last night."

"Yeah, hee hee. Well I'll go check our classroom just in case."

"See you later."

Entering the school, Frisk headed straight on for the playground, while Asriel turned left to go to the classroom. He hadn't gotten far when something caught his attention.

"Huh? Oh. Oh no..."

He looked at his wrist. The face of his watch was beeping a warning, a yellow icon of a battery flashing. Taking a deep breath, he checked his pockets, but found them empty.

"Oh no oh no oh no..." He clenched his fists and stood up straight. "Okay. It's okay..." He fiddled with the watch, disabling the low battery alert. "Just stay calm, and you'll be fine. No need to make a mountain out of a-"

"Yo, dude!"

"Ahh!" Asriel jumped in the air at the unexpected greeting. Instead of spinning around at the sound, he took another deep breath, before finally turning to see Monsterkid stepping out of the classroom.

"Oh. Howdy," said Asriel, his voice very controlled. "You surprised me, there."

"Guess I did, heh. Hey, Frisk not coming today?"

"They're probably on the playground. So," Asriel allowed himself a smile, "nearly finished your homework?"

"Oh I finished alright! I just, uh, am making it even awesomer. Hey, you got the time? If I have ten minutes I might scrape a B Plus outta this."

"Oh sure, it's... oh..." The face of Asriel's watch was blank.

"Oh, it's bust? Bummer." Monsterkid's look of concern didn't last long. It morphed into anticipation. "So does that mean you're gonna...?"

"No, I'll be fine." Asriel's voice had more force behind it. "As long as I don't freak out I should be-"

Monsterkid almost toppled into Asriel's personal space. "Boo!"

Asriel was unphased. "C'mon, don't try and force it, man. I don't wanna cause a scene."

"Aw, but it's so cool. By the way," he jabbed his cheek with his tail, "you got a little something on your..."

"I do?" Worry grew on his face as he used the pale reflection of a window to check his fuzzy face. "Hey, no I don't! I told you, cut that out!"

"Heh heh, sorry man. Anyways, I better go and finish this-"

Karma rang out across the silent corridor, and the loose babble of voices from the playground began to grow. School had begun.

"Aw crud, there goes that B Plus."

One B Minus later, the class had assembled and was messing around in the quarry of algebra, being acquainted with the equipment before one day being asked to descend into the mines and find the equipment of trigonometry to open the door to the deepest bowels of calculus. But that was for the end stage of the game. A structured introduction to the concept remained important.

"So, like," said Trainee Teacher Bratty, "The neat thing about X is, like, if X minus three is seven, X will always be ten. Its value is the same as long as everything else is. Crazy, I know, Catty still doesn't believe me! Everybody got that?"

"Yes miss," droned the class.

"Good. Now for, like, quadratic equations!"

The sequence break unnerved most in the room. Not Asriel. Not because he was an expert on them, despite reading about them in the Underground, but because he was busy looking outside. As students of all ages and times and species will say, this was not the best idea.

"...to Azzy. Earth to Azzy!"

"Mmm? Huh?" He suddenly felt every eye in the room on him.

"Were you, like, texting someone? You know I have to tell your mom if you were." A few giggles accompanied this.

"No, I w-wasn't using my phone," he said, sounding controlled but under pressure. Monsterkid looked at Frisk knowingly, a look Frisk didn't return.

"Okay, cool. Then, like, can you tell me the last part of the quadratic formula?"

A momentary panic hit him. Monsterkid leaned forward in his seat. But he was to be disappointed.

"...'All over 2A?'"

"Bingo, buddy! 'All over 2A, where A cannot equal zero'! Care to tell us why?"

"Oh, uh, isn't that because you can't divide by zero?"

"Exactamundo! Well, I heard that Doctor Itchyhead or whatever his name is can divide by zero, but like, let's leave that for a year or six, 'kay? Gives me a headache."

The lesson continued, with a momentary diversion as the class helped Bratty decide which emoji to use in her reply to Catty's latest text, and soon lunch was upon them. The perennial topic of the quality of their food filled the table Asriel and Frisk sat at.

"Aw baw, thef urr gret!" struggled Asriel's mouth.

Frisk shrugged. "They're okay. Store made, they do the job."

Asriel swallowed, then looked at Frisk a little sadly. "I forgot that about humans. It surprised me with Chara too."

"What do you mean?"

"You can only taste the physical elements of the food, even magic food. When it's good, and Mom's sandwiches are indeed good, all's okay. But monsters can taste the thought put into the food. The hard work and love that went into it. That makes them even better."

Frisk had a rare look of confusion. "The factory that made these sandwiches had hard work and love?"

"I mean Dad. You know him, he didn't just pick these off the shelf and say 'That'll do'. He thought long and hard about which sandwiches we'd like the most, and I can feel that. It makes every meal better!"

Frisk grinned. "Even when he burns the snails?"

He chuckled. "Well it helps them go down easier. You're missing out, Frisk. But then so was I. Petals got in the way of that feeling, you know? Right, what do you want to play when we...?"

He stopped. His hand was not grasped around the sandwich he remembered being there a moment before. Sure enough his eyes confirmed it was gone.

"Hey, what the...?"

Looking around, he saw a sandwich remarkably like his own being devoured by a bear a few spaces away.

"Uh, excuse me," he said politely, "I think that's my sandwich."

"Ib iv?" The bear swallowed defiantly. "I don't see your name on it."

Not missing a beat, Asriel picked up the packaging the sandwich had come in, where 'ASRIEL' had been written with the air of a signature on a royal decree. Overhearing the dispute, Monsterkid shuffled on the bench to watch it unfold.

"Well maybe my name's Asriel," said the bear, "you don't know."

"I do know, actually," coldness crept into the voice. "Your name is Ursk. Now I know your grandad's brother was called Asriel. It was a popular name for a while after... after, uh, well..."

Ursk showed no interest in the random information Asriel had just disclosed. Instead he claimed his prize and shoved the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. Monsterkid leaned in.

"Hey," said Asriel, "that's mean, I'm gonna-"

He stopped. Frisk didn't understand why, but the growing anger on his face was forcibly shoved aside. They also missed Monsterkid's disappointment.

"If you wanted it," came the calm continuation, "you could have asked. Hope you enjoyed it."

Ursk sucked on his fingers in victory. "I did, thanks."

Asriel got up from the table and walked towards the bathroom. It was then Frisk glimpsed Asriel's dead watch, and they understood at last why he worked so hard to de-escalate the argument. They also understood why later at recess instead of playing a ball game Asriel just sat on the swing or read a book. But after that, all the main flashpoints of the day were surely over. Just history to cover in the afternoon, then he could get home and get a battery for the watch or handle it however he wanted to. Not like history ever sparked off in unexpected ways, right?

"...an' that's when he said 'I'll pay you back next week, Gerson', but he never did, the cheapskate! And then he dusted in battle with humans. Wa ha, miss that bugger, I do. So," Gerson clapped his hands together," y'all know we were rounded up after the final battle an' shoved inside Mount Ebott. But maybe you might notta known we was considered for a different mountain. Hmm, lessee... Prince Kiddo! You know where the humans wanted to put us, right?"

Everyone looked to Asriel again. Unlike the morning ambush, he was prepared and attentive. "Mount Vesuvius, Mister Gerson."

"Asright! Gonna drag us all through Italy an' bung us in there. But then the mountain... disagreed. Quite eloquently I hear, if a little loud, but wasn't there in person to see it. One does wonder if the dust, human or monster, due to that argument is why they serve their pizza with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs. If so then I immediately regret givin' that thought voice as it'll leave a bad taste in my mouth from now on. Best y'all forget that nugget. Welp, nothin' like an omen of geologic calamity to get ya to reconsider, so Ebott it was. Now I could get into the long and complex story of the founding an' naming of Home in the Underground, but it's Friday an' Happy Hour's nearly upon us, so just sit 'n' chat fer a few minutes, okay?"

The class happily obeyed the instruction as Gerson's olive head disappeared behind a magazine of dubious educational merit. Asriel in particular looked more relaxed than he'd been all day. He soon found his hand being held.

"You okay?" asked Frisk, glancing at his watch to indicate they knew what was going on.

"Yeah, just a few more minutes, then I can slip home and get a battery."

"I think it would have been cool," interjected Monsterkid, "school can get so boring, you know?"

"Oh by the way, kids," said Gerson, licking his finger to turn a page, "don't forget to leave your paper on my desk?" The word 'Paper?' echoed around the room. "Yes, the one I assigned you on Wednesday."

"B-but Mister Gerson," said Asriel, "you said we had a week to finish that one."

"Did I? Wa ha, doesn't sound like me."

"You wanted a five page essay in two days?" The coolness was returning. "But we had other homework as well. I wrote the due date in my diary."

"Asriel, careful," whispered Frisk. They were ignored.

Gerson peeked over his magazine, examining Asriel's ears. "Size ain't everything, boy. Must've misheard me. Look, just gimme what you've written so far an' I'll give you a sympathy C, okay?"

"B-but... but I haven't started. I was gonna do it over the weekend..." His tone was rapidly heating up. Monsterkid grew excited.

Gerson winced. "Ooh, tha's a big oof, as the younguns say. Looks like an F, then."

"An _F?!_ " Snap. "But THAT'S **NOT _FAIR-_** "

In the Headmistress' Office, it was the tremble of the coffee cup Toriel noticed before anything else, a few drops spilling over an old memo. Then she heard the dull thump. She looked up from her desk, but couldn't see anything amiss, so resumed the letter she was writing. Half a paragraph later however, something was tickling the fur on her feet. A breeze. Strange, the window was closed tight. It was then she realised it was coming from under the door. The pieces were just coming together, when a few rapid knocks preceded the door opening without permission, allowing more wind into the room.

"My child-?!"

"It's Asriel," said Frisk.

She clutched her chest for a moment, then rummaged around under her desk to retrieve a bag. Then she followed Frisk out onto the corridor and down the stairs. She saw Gerson badly managing his class while muttering "Maybe it WAS Wednesday..." and ignored him as she approached where he was supposed to be wrapping up history. To say nobody was there would be a lie, for Monsterkid turned around from looking into the classroom as he heard her approach, looking starstruck.

"Yo, he's totally awesome, dude."

"Rejoin your class and teacher," she said, soft as granite, "before I call your parents. You too, Frisk."

The two children obeyed, and Toriel entered the room, struggling a little against the wind trying to push her back. It was a mess, desks and chairs and papers dancing at their unexpected liberation, Gerson's magazine slapping uselessly against the window. The source of the microtornado was obvious, the tall boss monster floating a foot off the ground, the black markings in his fur blown about by the wind he was obviously creating in the midst of his cackling, his horns tipped back as he laughed in triumph, how voice deep, booming and hollow. A few stray bolts of rainbow coloured lightning struck the floor, causing showers of stars.

" **I am the absolute god of hyperdeath! No being alive can vanquish me, puny mortals! The laws of reality are more like guidelines, guidelines I can ignore because I have all the power! They are mine to ignore or enforce or amend! Everyone shall kneel before-** _Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow okay okay..._ "

Toriel had not been intimidated by the show of force she'd walked in on. Instead she picked her way through the educational detritus and seized the deity by his ear as it flapped in the wind, dragging him down until his feet were firmly planted on the floor again. As he touched down, the wind died away, leaving the deafening silence as she released his ear, and tried to steer his decorated muzzle to meet her gaze. She looked down at the watch still on his wrist.

"Please tell me you broke it during recess," she said. "I can understand an accident."

"...no." The voice retained all its deep etherealness, and was joined by accute embarrassment. "I was watching cartoons this morning before breakfast and I forgot to change the battery."

"I see." And she did see. "And what did you argue with Gerson about?"

"...homework," he said. "Uh, you do have...?"

He looked at his feet. Scraps of green and yellow cloth had been thrown around by his display of power. Toriel took the purple contents of her bag and handed them to him.

"Put that robe on quickly. Thank goodness for elasticated trousers," she mused.

"Mom, I'm sorry," came the voice, as if from the room itself than the being inside, "I tried really hard to stay calm all day, it was just unfair-"

"And the storm? Why did you have to frighten your class?"

"...I didn't want them to laugh at my bare chest." He plunged that chest into the midst of the robes. Despite not looking particularly motherly at that moment, she helped thread his horns through the neckhole. His pure black eyes met her copper-red, but she could tell he was trying not to look at her."

"I understand that a little too much 'oomph' went into the process that returned you to your father and I," she said, trying to be patient. "And your soul can have a surge of power when stressed without the regulator in the watch. And that's why we want you to develop as normally as possible, because it will stabilize your soul in the long run. But you are getting complacent, my son."

"I know." He dropped the robes over his legs, his stocky shoulders ensuring the Delta Rune was fully displayed before his mother. "But five pages in two days, Mom!"

An adult lamenting such a trivial dispute forced a smile on her. "We can discuss that, but I think it will be best you are fully calm so you can safely return to your normal form, then get a new pack of batteries for your watch."

"...are you gonna ground me?" The Absolute God of Hyperdeath looked scared.

"...I could. But no. Not for struggling with your condition, even if it was your neglect that caused it. This, however," she gestured at the wreck of a classroom, "has earned a detention, I think. There are better ways to deal with embarrassment, and you know that. Monday evening."

His frame, broader than his mother's but nowhere near his father's, slumped in defeat. "Okay..."

"But that is for then. For now," she traced the markings on his cheeks, "how about I take Frisk and you to get some nice cream?"

"Ooh!" He grinned sharply, the face built to display divine wrath looking surprisingly sincere full of childish wonder. "Can I get sprinkles? Oh, can I get a double? Since I'll be grown up for a few hours?"

"I have no objections, my child."

"Just... uh... can we wait a bit? I think I can get my eyes back to normal in a few minutes. Maybe even get these marks to disappear. I don't wanna scare anyone again."

"Take your time. Cross the T's and dot the... well, that should be obvious in this context."

The otherworldly voice chuckled at the joke, before Asriel stepped over what had been Frisk's desk to look outside the window. Toriel could hear his deep controlled breaths, trying to excise the turmoil of the last ten minutes. She waited on the rocky path she had never dared hope she could guide him through, waiting for when he was ready to pick himself up and continue.

"It's a beautiful day outside..."

**Author's Note:**

> Original suggestion: Asriel is saved, but he's in full Absolute God of Hyperdeath mode settling in with his family.
> 
> Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


End file.
